Onida, SD: Grain Elevators and Ringneck Energy

Ringneck Energy: (Satellite, the plant is new enough that there are no buildings in the 2019 image)

Grain Elevators: (Satellite, I'm too lazy to count, but it looks like this town may have more bins and silos than it does houses even though it has quite a few houses.)

One of several photos posted by Fearless Grain Marketing LLC and shared by Jeremey Frost

When the satellite image taught me that this plant is new, I dug deeper because I knew that the ethanol market has been negatively impacted since 2016 by changes in EPA regulations and the tariff war with China. [SPglobal]

The tracks through this town used to be owned by Chicago & North Western. According to a modern map, they are now owned by Canadian Pacific. On the satellite image, two of the four tracks south of town are full of covered hoppers and both tracks north of town are full of cars. When I saw that all of the tracks (two) north of town were used for storage, I scanned the tracks to the north to confirm that the route is abandoned north of town. But it is intact down to Blunt, SD where CP has bought another former C&NW route.

Ringneck Energy photo via MitchellRepublic

As part of building the ethanol plant, they added tracks to store tank cars. The corn is sourced locally and there are feedlots in the area to provide a market for the distiller's grains that is a coproduct of producing ethanol. So this plant doesn't need hopper cars.

Production was delayed because of blizzards and rains, but it started on April 23, 2019. But it took them a while to get things tuned up and running smoothly. "Ear plugs might have been in short supply in Onida. Tuning up the new boilers meant blowing off steam in a big way that made normal conversation in Onida homes not possible for a few days, according to a report in the Onida Watchman weekly." And they are building a muffler in case they have problems again in the future. It achieved full production by June 17, 2019, "turning 80,000 bushels of corn every day into 225,000 gallons of ethanol....About 14 years ago, the United States became the world’s biggest producer of ethanol and the nation’s production has kept growing: from 1.6 billion gallons in 2000 to 3.9 billion in 2005 to 13.2 billion in 2010 and about 16 billion last year." [MitchellRepublic]

Another clue that this plant is new is that it needs only two bins to store the corn because they are big. This photo is a reminder that modern steel bins add a new section at the bottom and then jack up the bin to make room for the next section.

Ringneck Energy Facebook

Ringneck Energy's web site brags about using better technology, but I couldn't find any info about the technology. In a phone interview with CEO Walt Wendland, he cited a good corn yield locally and the new technology as competitive edges that should allow them to survive the down market for ethanol. [SPglobal]   CapJournal has a lot of the same text and the same photo. They do add "The key role the plant plays in the region’s farm economy is illustrated by the fact that one of Ringneck Energy’s directors is Tim Luken, general manager of Oahe Grain Corp. in Onida."

Concerning the new technology:

Wendland said efficiency improvements to ethanol production over the past several years will help shield the plant from problems that older facilities have faced.
ICM provided the design and engineering for Ringneck, and Wendland pushed the company for the most efficient equipment available.
"The very first time I met with ICM, I wanted assurances that I wasn't going to get the same cookie cutter they've built a hundred times. If they weren't going to give me a better mousetrap, I wasn't going to bring a plant to the area."
ICM has designed over 100 ethanol plants and holds 21 technology patents, according to the company's website.
Some of the efficiency comes from evaporators and molecular sieves that are larger than those at other plants, as well as improved heat recovery and degasification to aid distillation, Wendland said.
Wendland hopes the plant can gain a low carbon intensity score under California's Low Carbon Fuel Standard, which would create a premium for the plant's ethanol. Certification under the program, however, takes time.
[SPglobal]

One of several photos posted by Fearless Grain Marketing LLC, cropped
Drone pictures of our local agricultural; some of RingNeck and some of CHS bunker getting filled with corn.
[I haven't found these bunkers on a satellite image. They have a lot of bins close to town.]

Jeremey Frost posted
Bob Summers Question Are these grain bunkers included in the licensed capacity of grain elevators now, so the elevator can put grain in them they are storing for customers? Back in the day if we just piled grain on the ground it had to be company owned.
Jeremey Frost Either owned or delayed priced.
Dennis DeBruler This group is great because it keeps teaching me stuff. "Delayed priced" sounds like customer storage. But I learned it is just for a few months so the risk of spoilage is low.
https://www.farmerstradingco.com/.../DEFERREDPRICING.pdf

Cincinnati, OH: CSX/(C&O+B&O) Queensgate Yard and RH (RH) Tower

(Satellite, the southern part of the yard complex is west of NS's Gest Street Yard)

Turntable: (Satellite)

Tower: (Satellite, probably where that equipment cabinet now sets.)

Not only was this yard huge, it still is. The name Queensgate Yard was very familiar. But evidently not because I have written notes about it, but because it is the destination of many of the trains coming north over a Ohio River bridge.

This is one of the few CSX hump yards that Hunter did not close. In fact, it has been rather recently upgraded. [TrainOrders]

Street View, Jun 2021, looking North

 

Street View, Dec 2022, looking South

The above street views were taken from the Western Hills Viaduct. The following two photos of that viaduct also include good views of this yard.

Cincinnati-viaduct, looking North

 

Cincinnati-viaduct, looking South

Dennis DeBruler posted

Queensgate Railyard, Cincinnati, OH

https://www.cincinnati-oh.gov/.../ty-lin-aer-report-on.../, p6

A brochure claims: "Queensgate Railyard, the largest active railyard in the country."

https://www.cincinnati-oh.gov/.../WHV%20Extradosed%20Fact...

I thought UP's Baily Yard in North Platte, NE, was the largest in the USA.

Erik Landrum: It's not top 5 in size, but it's plenty busy and has been completely rebuilt and modernized over the past five years, including a newly expanded locomotive shop.

Edit: that's a fairly old photo, at least 15 years ago.

David Rogers: We been seeing over 1000 cars a night on the inbound side just on 3rd shift alone.

Michael Irvin: RICE, Selkirk, Radnor and Queensgate

MP Rail Photography posted

CSX's Queensgate Yard in Cincinnati.

January 18, 2026

Cincinnati, Ohio

Bill Rettberg Jr. posted two photos with the comment: "Before there was a Queensgate Yard in Cincinnati, there was a mish mash of yards, but it was always interesting to just stand on a bridge and watch all of the maneuvering. A couple of images from the early 70s."

Solomon Tucker: This must be Hopple Street.

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Bud Kula posted
A string of cars get "humped" at CSX's Queensgate Yard in Cincinnati as SD40-3 4043 passes under the hump with a long string of tank cars. (14 Jul 2016)
Keith Edward I thought they were removing all the hump yards as obsolete.
Andrew Stephenson At CSX, the hump yards at Waycross, Selkirk, Cincinnati, Nashville, and Avon are still active.

Please access C&OHS Convention in Covington, KY - CSX Queensgate Yard for several photos of the yard.

Queensgate Yard was built in the late 1970s, opening in 1980, to replace the yards of the Chessie System's constituents in the Cincinnati area, including not only the five former C&O and B&O yards covered over by the new yard (A Yard, Brighton Yard, Mill Creek Yard, and the Stock Yard, all B&O, plus C&O's Liberty Yard), but also the C&O yard at Silver Grove (which had a 26-track eastbound classification hump and a 14-track westbound flat-switched yard). After the formation of CSX, the former L&N De Coursey Yard (which had two humps) was closed in favor of Queensgate in 1984, as was the former B&O Oakley yard in 1987. Coincidentally, perhaps, Conrail closed the former PRR Undercliff Yard in 1980 and the former NYC Sharonville hump yard in 1987. The NS (former Southern) Gest Street Yard is the only pre-1980 yard in the Mill Creek Valley that still survives. Queensgate Yard has eight reception tracks, 50 classification tracks and six departure tracks. The yard sorts about 2000 cars per day (with a theoretical capacity of 3200 cars per day). In 1995, the yard built manifest trains destined for Ashland, KY, Chicago, Columbus, southward on the L&N to Corbin and beyond (5 trains), Detroit (3), Indianapolis, southwestward on the L&N to Louisville and beyond (6 trains), Russell, KY (2), Saginaw, MI, St. Louis (4), Toledo, Dayton, and Willard, OH (3). New destinations since adding part of Conrail in 1999 include Selkirk, NY, and several others.
[DonWinter]

Richard Steward posted
The car shop and bowl yard at CSX's Queensgate yard. Cincinnati, Ohio. April 18, 2015. Photo credit: Brian Sellers. https://www.railpictures.net/photo/527437/

CincyRails
Queensgate Yard is one of the largest rail classification facilities in North America.   With a length of approximately five miles and over 70 miles of track, Queensgate is one of the most productive hump yards on the CSX system.  Constructed at a cost of over 71 million dollars with the purpose of consolidating several small yards in the area, the yard was dedicated on October 20, 1981.

One of eight aerial photos by Larry Stulz via CincyRails, looking south

Bob Eisthen posted
This is the pull-down end of CSX' Queensgate Yard in Cincinnati on August 15, 2015 as seen from the Hopple Street Viaduct.
Unfortunately, I've lost some memory and can't recognize the model of locomotive of the 1605 and 1601 that are the rear-most of the power in the frame.
Stu Levene They are RP20CDs
Andy Minning They were rail power gensets. They got rid of them a couple years ago.
Stu Levene https://www.railpictures.net/photo/364886/

Darrel Land posted
CSXT 2415 At Queensgate Yd working the hump in Cincinnati, Ohio

 

Chris Strogen posted
Northbound Chessie System comes up through Queensgate Yard in 1982. Photo By Randy Strogen

The RH Tower was at the northern throat of the yard.

Steven M Geisler posted two photos with the comment: "B&O I12 "Wagon Top" caboose C2479 passing RH Tower. RH Tower. Cincinnati, OH.  Dec. 1970"

Dennis DeBruler shared

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Darren Reynolds posted two photos with the comment: "B&Os 'RH' tower  Cincinnati, Ohio"

Tim Shanahan shared

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"RH" tower This is an interesting picture over top of the B&O Eng is Some kind of signal? I am not sure what it's used for..Well it looked like a good place to Railfan.

Photo by: David P. Oroszi Feb.16,1974

Wally Babcock: That's a tilting target signal. They are used a lot on branch lines. They were controlled by the crew.

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"RH" tower Cincinnati, Ohio 1980

Photo by: John Fuller

All images from North American interlockings States A to Z and Canada....

Drone video tour

Drone video tour from the other side

Was Springfield, IL: Allis-Chalmers Plant

The Allis-Chalmers content has been moved to here.

Tampa, FL: SAL Gary Shops, Roundhouse and Coaling Tower

(Satellite)

Tom Pavluvcik uploaded a University of South Florida Special Collections photo
The SAL's Gary shops in 1940

Aerial view looking south in about 1940 shows the Gary shops of the Seaboard Air Line Railway, including the roundhouse. The shops were originally developed by the Tampa Northern Railroad then absorbed into the SAL after the takeover in 1912. The location is at the south end of Tampa's 30th street, not far from the shore of McKay Bay

Troy Nolen 7y 

Gary shops were closed literally overnight after the ACL/SAL merger in 1967. I think the entire complex was demolished by 1974, maybe a little earlier. I have an aerial that shows everything including the roundhouse still standing in 1969. There was a spur to the old City of Tampa incinerator, that was removed when the incenerator was redesigned in the 80's. Just North of where the shops were is now the CSX transflo facility. The only trackage still in use is the track from what was the main line (now the "East Main") across 60, and to the throat of the Transflo yard. There was a tangent track to where the yards used to be where a lumber facility of some kind was built and existed until very recently. With all the construction of the crosstown connector going on, I think that facility was razed.

Jerald McGowan posted four photos with the comment:

Turntable Wreck:
SAL Roundhouse, Tampa, Florida, 1961: I was working on the second shift and I was with another machinist and we were setting the valves of an Alco yard switcher’s McIntosh and Seymour engine. We were working on the track that came straight into the roundhouse from the fuel rack to the turntable to the drop pit and the overhead crane area. The locomotive that we were working on was spotted at the drop pit track next to the roundhouse office. It was still daylight but it would have been dark in about an hour. I was on top of the engine and I heard a gosh awful noise and I looked around towards the noise that was at the turntable just in time to see an Alco road switcher locomotive going over on its side. The locomotive had been shoved onto the turntable with a cut of locomotives and the tracks were not lined up. I never did see the hostler or his helper so I don’t know what happened to them. They might still be running away as far as I know! The noise was from the crossties on the turntable that the locomotives wheels were breaking. The Alco didn’t go all the way over but it went over far enough that the top part of the locomotive’s carbody was leaning against the upright beam of the upside down “U” shaped I-beam that formed a loop over the turntable. That looped I-beam was at the center of the turntable and there was a part at the top of it where the slip rings were located for the electrical power for the turntable’s electric motors.
I saw lube oil and cooling water flying out of the sides of the locomotive. I quickly got down off of the engine that I was working on and I ran to that locomotive and climbed up on it and went into the cab shut down the engine. That locomotive’s wheels were off of the tracks and the weight of the locomotive had broken some of the crossties on the turntable. After I had shut the engine down and I was back out of the cab and onto the turntable looking at it, I thought to myself, what a fool I was! The I-beam upright could have broken and I would have been in the cab of that locomotive when it rolled on over and down into the turntable hole!
As I was looking at it, my foreman came running up and he said, “Get a torch, Mac!” and he kept repeating those words over and over to me and I just looked incredulously at him. Then, after he calmed down a bit, he told me that he was looking for me to go to Mulberry, Florida to see about a locomotive with a problem. So my helper and I gathered up our tools as quickly as possible and we got into the shop truck and away we went to Mulberry!
When we got back to the Gary roundhouse just before the shift change at 11:30 pm,there was a number of men working at the turntable with floodlights all around the area and the 100 ton capacity pneumatic jacks, crossties, other large timbers, etc. They were working to get that locomotive back up onto the tracks.
I checked in with the third shift foreman and then I went home from work. The next afternoon when I came to work, everything was just as if nothing had ever happened. The turntable was repaired and all of the broken crossties had been replaced and everything was back to normal. There was not even any talking about what had happened the evening before either! Things happen fast on the railroad. Well, Sometimes!

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1968, ca. The turntable at Gary Shops, Tampa, FL. The building on the left had the large Ingersol Rand air compressor in it for the shop's air supply and it also housed the boiler for the shop's steam. The tall tank on the side of the building is the reservoir for the shop's compressed air. I have no idea who the man is that is standing near the center of the turntable.

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1968, ca. SAL Turntable & Alcos at Gary Shops, Tampa, FL. In this photo, you can see the fueling track lined up with the turntable and if it had been lined up like it is in this photo, the incident would not have happened.

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1968, ca. SAL Locomotives #1132 & #604 was at the Fueling area of Gary Shops, Tampa, FL. The washer for the locomotives was on the track that is next to it and is empty. The washer is the pipe with the rounded part at the top and the small house is where the chemicals for the wash water was injected into it. Notice the sand house behind and to the side of the locomotive units. 

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1968, ca. SAL Gary Railroad Roundhouse. The west side of the roundhouse is showing two stalls for locomotives. We did lots of work outdoors in the areas where the locomotive are shown here. There was work pits beneath the locomotives shown here. The tracks farther away from the roundhouse did not have work pits and the track next to the power house was where we did the load box and engine testing work. There was a city street that dead ended right behind where these locomotives are.  

1915 Map of SAL in Tampa

CSX Map

The beginning of a photo series of the roundhouse after abandonment but before demolition

Ashtabula, OH: NYC Roundhouse #104 and Water Tank #113

(Satellite)

Rick Fleischer posted five photos with the comment:

The New York Central roundhouse at Ashtabula, Oh. no dates. This roundhouse served the West Yard, mainline, Youngstown Branch, and the branchline to central Pennsylvania - the old Jamestown & Franklin. The last picture shows the roundhouse site, pretty much as it looks today.

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Dennis DeBruler The track that went straight through the roundhouse is interesting.

Raymond Storey posted

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Satellite
[In case CSX sells this yard also, and a developer reuses this site.]

Dennis DeBruler commented on Bob's post

 I see on a satellite image that the roundhouses of Pennsy and NYC were within about a couple blocks of each other.
https://www.google.com/.../@41.8717719,-80.../data=!3m1!1e3

 

Rick Shilling posted
1949 New York Central Railroad Roundhouse and Yard with Locomotive #2543 and tender to the right at Ashtabula, Ohio.

Dan West posted two photos with the comment: "Here is the New York Central RR Reclamation Plant in Ashtabula. The complex occupied 50 acres on the north side of North Bend Road just west of U.S. 20 (Prospect Road). This was the main building, but there were others there as well. It was a car shop in 1919 when the photos here were taken, but was converted into a reclamation plant in 1937. It was originally built around 1914. It was one of the two largest reclamation plants in the US, employing 400 laborers in its heyday."

Raymond Storey shared

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Harlan Rinto posted three photos with the comment: "Turntable operators, N.Y.C./L.S &M.S. Ashtabula Roundhouse, June, 1919"

[I believe the first photo is new. The images in the comments are definitely new.]

Ron Lupo shared 

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Harlan Rinto commented on his post
1917

Michael L. Penna commented on Harlan's post
MC Robinson supplying concrete for the construction.

Michael L. Penna commented on Harlan's post

Michael L. Penna commented on Harlan's post

Lake, MI: Pere Marquette Coaling Tower and Depot

(Satellite)

Dan Farrow posted

I have forgotten about this structure on the Pere Marquette Trail until someone posted it in another group. It is a coal tower used to refuel steam locomotives. The first time I saw it was in '96 while cycling the undeveloped trail.

Here is a link to a good description of what a coal tower is and how they operated.

https://bluelemon.me/tag/coal-tower/

Timothy M Shanahan shared
Dennis DeBruler Michigan has significantly more remaining coal towers than does Illinois.
http://www.michiganrailroads.com/coaling-facilities

BlueLemon
[The coaling tower is in the background whereas the depot is close to the foreground. Given the perpendicular tracks, the shed in the foreground probably stored a couple of hand-powered carts for the section gang.]

At first I didn't think this Dan's post was in Lake because the trail curves in the photo but the trail looks straight in the satellite image. Then I saw a curve in some other photos clearly labeled as Lake, MI. When I zoom out the satellite image, I can see a slight curve. So the above photo must have used a telescope lens that compressed the distance.

Edward Gross, Aug 2002

The Lake coal dock was built in 1929 and could hold five railcars worth of coal (approximately 250 tons) with more stored underground. The timing for building this dock is puzzling given the changes that were already taking place in railroading and the fact that steam locomotives had been plying this same track for decades; however, the tower might have been planned years earlier, but was delayed until Consumers Power—the local utility—could extend lines to Lake to supply electricity to the winch that would raise the coal buckets to the tower. Power finally came to Lake in the later part of the year, according to an article* in Aug. 16, 1929 issue of The Clare Sentinel....The tracks used by passenger and freight trains running between Saginaw and Ludington were removed in the 1990s and the grade turned into a rails to trails pathway within the last decade.

* NEW COAL DOCK COMPLETED AT LAKE The ‘Pere Marquette railroad company have just completed a concrete coal dock at Lake Station that has a capacity of five cars of coal. It is reported that the dock as well as a new pumping station that is expected to be installed will be run by electricity as soon as the new Consumers Power Company’s line is completed to Lake.
Summary of Michigan Railroad History

[BlueLemon]

It was engineered by Robert and Schaffer, a firm out of Chicago.

Bob Mcgilvray Jr. posted

Lake, Michigan - October 2017 - 43.851764, -85.001158 - Pere Marquette Rail Trail

MichiganRailroads

The former Pere Marquette coal dock at Lake, Michigan (Isabella County) still stands though it is no longer is use nor are the rails present. This was one of two coaling facilities on the PM's line between Saginaw and Ludington. The other was located at Baldwin.

1905 improvements: The PM builds a new water station at Lake, replacing an older model. [PMAR-1905]

Dave Kuntz posted four photos with the comment: "Concrete relic from the time of my grandparents. Coaling Tower in Lake, MI.  Now a side diversion from a rail trail.  Ever wonder what the top of one looks like?"

Tim Shanahan shared

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Clare County Historical Society posted

The coal tower at Lake is one of approximately 15 that remain standing in Michigan, and one of only two that you can walk up to and around. 

It was built by the Pere Marquette Railroad to provide coal for their locomotives in the late 1920s. It was one of the last coal towers built since diesel locomotives would soon suppliant the dirty and less-efficient coal engines. There's a marker that our historical society posted that talks about the tower and its height. 

The Pere Marquette State Rail Trail is a great way to visit the tower. If you ride or walk the trail, you can sometimes find pieces of coal next to the trail that fell off when trains still ran along the grade. Neat souvenirs of a bygone era.

Tim Shanahan shared

Lake, Michigan

Dennis DeBruler: Map applications give me the lake instead of a town. This link nails the location: https://maps.app.goo.gl/NrdTpKaacYZkjAzJ6

Roger Patrick Bates commented on the above post
Was just there in June [2025]

Dave Kuntz Drone Photos posted four photos with the comment: "Concrete relic from the time of my grandparents. Coaling Tower in Lake, MI.  Now a side diversion from a rail trail.  Ever wonder what the top of one looks like?"

Tim Shanahan shared

Lake, Michigan

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